Environmentalists rip Pilgrim Pipeline

A rendering of one possible route for the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline that would carry crude oil from Albany, N.Y., to a refinery in Linden.
(Photo:
Rendering courtesy of Pilgrim Pipeline LLC.
)

PARSIPPANY – Environmental groups want to put a cork in a controversial pipeline plan that would carry crude oil through parts of Somerset and Union counties.

Speaking to a group at the Parsippany Library Main Branch Tuesday, representatives from the Sierra Club, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Food and Water Watch said the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline running from Albany, New York, to Linden, would endanger the safety of residents and create potential environmental hazards. They asked the residents to urge their municipal leaders to pass resolutions opposing the pipeline and participate in a phone campaign to inform their neighbors.

“Building fracked oil pipelines through New Jersey’s residential neighborhoods and protected watershed lands puts our families’ health and well-being at immediate risk,” said Matt Smith, an organizer with Food and Water Watch. “In this post-Sandy era of rising sea levels and extreme weather, our Jersey Shore communities will be imperiled unless we turn away immediately from dirty fossil-fuel infrastructure, including the Pilgrim Pipeline.”

The proposed pipeline would run from a regional hub in Albany, New York, to Bayway refinery in Linden. No formal plans have been submitted, but Kate Millsaps, conservation program coordinator for the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, showed a rendering from Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings that depicts a route down the Route 87 corridor in New York into New Jersey, where it would follow the PSE&G right of way through Morris County and into Watchung in Somerset County, and Scotch Plains, Fanwood and Westfield in Union County, before arriving in Linden.

Based on the rendering, the pipeline would pass through Morris County close to the Jersey City Reservoir and the Troy Meadows in Parsippany, among other environmentally-sensitive areas.

“If there’s something that should be stopped, this is it,” said township Councilman Michael dePierro, who also sits on the planning board and attended the meeting on Tuesday. “I don’t think we need this to go through here. I think they should move the refinery from Linden to Albany.”

Currently, the Bakken crude oil originating in North Dakota is shipped to Albany via rail. From there, it travels to East Coast refineries by rail, but is shipped to Linden via barges along the Hudson River.

George Bochis, vice president of development, Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, said the Pilgrim Pipeline would remove 1,000 barges off the river each year and help alleviate shortages of critical fuels for families and businesses after severe weather events such as Hurricane Sandy, decreasing recovery times for affected areas.

Millsaps noted that the project would include two pipelines — one 16 inches in diameter, the other 18 inches in diameter — with one going back to Albany, so there was no reason to believe the refined gasoline would remain in New Jersey.

The pipeline carrying the Bakken oil — which can be refined more easily and at less expense than many other types of crude — could in fact enable Bayway to begin oil exports as the Obama administration, according to several recent reports, is considering relaxing decades-old federal laws banning crude-oil exports. The Bakken oil also is more volatile than most crude oils, and therefore more prone to explosion, environmentalists say.

Adding to the controversy is the hydraulic fracturing process — known as fracking — used to obtain the Bakken crude, helping the United States gain an increasing share of the global oil market. Fracking is used to reach oil deposits under shale and other bedrock that were previously inaccessible to conventional drilling. The process involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals into the rock bed, causing tiny fissures that allows the oil through.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, North America is the only major producer of the “tight oil” produced by fracking, with about 90 percent of it coming from the United States. Several countries have banned or declared a moratorium on fracking, including France, while officials other European nations are calling for an ease on fracking restrictions to meet demand for oil and natural gas, according to a Bloomberg News report.

“I think this is another disaster in the making,” said Winfield Drive resident Ken Dolsky, who plans to address the township council at its next meeting. “It’s going to provide more opportunity for environmental problems and double opportunity to both leak and blow up, and either way, you have home owners that are going to be within 30 or 40 feet of this pipeline.”

But Pilgrim officials say opponents should take a breath and begin a dialogue about the proposal.

“We are disappointed that these groups are opposing the project without meeting with us,” Bochis said. “As we have been doing during our meetings with local government leaders, we would be happy to meet to provide additional information. The pipeline would in no way increase the amount of oil and refined products currently transported between Linden and Albany. We are therefore surprised that these groups prefer the status quo when this project could provide a safer, more environmentally friendly and efficient means to transport these products than the region's current dependence on river barges. The spill risk for barges is almost seven times greater than that of pipelines. We believe that the more people learn about Pilgrim Pipeline, the more support the project will receive.”